Tuesday, October 26, 2010

What if Autism Society of America - Larimer County earned a donation every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 30 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, eBay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you'll be supporting your favorite cause.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Teaching Verbal Behavior 101

The Integrated Services Department is excited to offer the following educational opportunities for parents in our district.Our goal is to provide parents/families with information and training relevant to their children's educational needs.Please take a look at the classes being offered this fall and sign-up today by calling 490-3225 or emailing earensme@psdschools.org

September 30

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Teaching Verbal Behavior 101

Mr. Thomas Caffrey specializes in teaching functional communication skills and helping parents and teachers implement strategies to manage problem behaviors in the classroom and at home. He is an internationally recognized speaker that has given over 200 national and international conference presentations and workshops.

Where:Harmony Library Community Room

When:6-8:30 pm

Target Audience:Parents/families of students with social, communication or behavioral needs, more specifically autism or multiple disabilities.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

DOES MY CHILD HAVE SENSORY INTEGRATION DISORDER?

Have you ever been in a crowded place and suddenly you feel you just can't take it anymore? Have you had to wear clothes that are too tight, too scratchy or uncomfortable? How about having to endure an outing somewhere that has a terrible smell? Have you switched off your car radio because the song that's playing feels like noise in your brain?

What if you couldn't get relief from these things? How long do you think you would be able to hold it together? How long do you think a child would be able to hold it together?

It's common to mistake sensory challenges for bad behavior. But how do you know the difference? Is a child behaving poorly or overwhelmed with sensory stimuli?

When people read this list, they typically say "Hey, I have that too." But usually they don't. We ALL have sensory preferences. But that does NOT qualify as Sensory Integration Disorder. The sensory challenges need to be severe enough to impede a child's ability to function in everyday life.

The following is a checklist of some common symptoms of sensory integration disorder. If your child exhibits many of these symptoms to a large degree, it's a great idea to contact a good Occupational Therapist who will create a sensory diet for your child.

Jené is an accomplished author and developer of education materials for children with autism and special needs. She is a co-founder of Natural Learning Concepts, a leading manufacturer for special education materials and autism products. Visit the Natural Learning Concepts website at http://www.nlconcepts.com or call (800) 823-3430

Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Longest Day of Golf is tomorrow, June 21st!

Come on by the Collindale golf course and order a meal from C&B Pott's family friendly menu and check on the progress of the golfers.

C&B Pott's serves great food for breakfast, lunch & dinner and our "Four Friends for Autism" team will be starting around 5 am & will cont...inue for 16 hours until around 9:00 pm. You can also shop for boutique quality merchandise from the MaXarT ~ "autism is beautiful" display. In addition, chair massages by Meta-Morphose Touch, massage therapy will be available for purchase starting at 5:30 pm

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Pump It Up is excited to participate in National Mom's Nite Out, the first nationally organized celebration of motherhood. National Mom's Nite Out is designed to give mom a nite off so she can enjoy some time to herself. Pump It Up is proud to offer an inflatably fun time for the rest of her family, join us on National Mom's Nite Out and bounce the night away.

Date: Friday, May 7, 2010. Time: 5:00 pm - 8:00 pmCost: $10 per person Inlcudes: Pizza & beverage, Mother's Days craft, face painting for the little ones, and even a bag of goodies to take home to Mom!!

Join nationally-known autism spectrum speaker and author William Stillman for a powerful and inspiring "inside-out" approach to understanding autism. As a person with Asperger's Syndrome, Stillman passionately advances a humanistic exploration of the autism spectrum from the perspective of those who experience it:

What is it like to experience autism?

What are "severe behaviors" communicating?

What is considered best practice in supporting others' communication, sensory sensitivities, learning and movement differences?

Stillman shatters myths, decodes misinterpretations, and illuminates many unique insights supported by anecdotes from people with autism as well as his own experiences. More importantly perhaps, Stillman shows us how we are all more alike than different, and participants will leave the day having experienced their own "autisms."

Outline

Autism in Brief

Clinical stuff

DSM definitions

What drives extreme "autistic behaviors"?

Non-clinical, humanistic stuff

What the DSM doesn't reveal (includes film and simulation)

The importance of presuming intellect

Understanding Autism

Communication differences

Exploring alternatives to speech

Understanding the secret social code of language and eye contact

Learning differences

Appreciating the "art of self-teaching"

How people with autism best think, learn, process and retain information

Movement differences

Rethinking "idiosyncratic" movement

Rationales for perseveration and "stimming"

Sensory Differences

Explaining the impact of sensory sensitivities

Understanding prevention versus intervention (includes simulation)

Additional Information and Wrap-Up

Commonly experienced forms of pain and discomfort

Why pain may go unreported

Commonly experienced forms of mental health issues

How to delineate from autism

Common neurological disconnects we all endure

Speaker disclosure and autobiographic anecdotes

Objectives

List the symptoms and sensory sensitivities associated with autism.

Define the procedures to presume intellect and enhance relationships.

Explain how persons with autism think and learn.

Review best practice approaches including adaptations and accommodations.

Interpret and apply such best practices in an individualized, person-centered approach.

William Stillman is a nationally-known autism spectrum speaker and author with Asperger's Syndrome, and has over 20 years of experience advising parents and support teams on positive, proactive approaches. His books include Demystifying the Autistic Experience, The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Asperger's Syndrome, When Your Child has Asperger's Syndrome, The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Bipolar Disorder, The Soul of Autism, Empowered Autism Parenting, and Autism and the God Connection. He also hosts a column in the national publication, The Autism Perspective magazine. Stillman has a B.S. in Education. William provides highly-acclaimed seminars and private consultation nationwide. He served as a point person for the state of Pennsylvania on children with intellectual impairment, mental health issues and autism.

Just like a live seminar, you attend a webcast at a scheduled time, only you do it from a web page on your computer. Webcasts include video and audio of the speakers, slides, and seminar handout materials — all on your computer!

Credits listed for this event have been approved for this program. If interested in credit availability for professions not listed, please contact cepesi@pesi.comor 800-844-8260 prior to the event. Per board regulations, additional credit inquires submitted after the date of the event cannot be honored. For all other inquiries, please contact info@pesi.com.Register now

Please do not reply to this email as it is not a monitored mailbox. If this email was sent to you in error or if you do not wish to receive further notices, please Click Here to take your address off our list. Thank you!

I GoodSearch & GoodShop for the Autism Society of Larimer County Raise money for the ASLC just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.comIf you do not wish to receive future e-mails or newsletters, please reply to this message with 'Remove' in the subject line.

In honor of Autism Awareness month the Autism Society of Larimer County and the Gallery Underground presents Art on the Spectrum.

Art on the Spectrum will feature guest artists including local autistic professor Dr. Temple Grandin (recently documented in the HBO film with Claire Danes) as well as 15 local creative children who fall on the Autistic spectrum. We initially received over 50 entries and we had the tough job of choosing our favorites from these. Their art will be for sale on the guest wall and proceeds will be donated to the Autism Society of Larimer County. The show is designed primarily as an awareness event with hopes of raising funds for to assist families and individuals with autism in Larimer County.

Sponsored by our great friends at New Belgium BreweryWe lock the doors at 10pm, be sure to be here by then!

Art on the Spectrum Featured Artists

Kenzie Anderson

Cameron Cotton

Johnathan Evans

Dr. Temple Grandin

Tavian Gipson

Besa H.

Jiu Lee

Nathan Molineaux Kaylee NobleLuke Scafidi

Brody Stevens

Max Timm

Keith Tuttle

Matthew W. Anthony Zimmerman

Coming Mid April

All art submitted to the Art on the Spectrum will be on display at the

Monday, March 15, 2010

The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court ruled Friday in a long-running battle by parents convinced

there is a connection. While expressing sympathy for the parents involved in the emotionally charged cases, the court concluded they had failed to show a connection between the mercury-containing preservative and autism. "Such families must cope every day with tremendous challenges in caring for their autistic children, and all are deserving of sympathy and admiration," special master George Hastings Jr. wrote. But, he added, Congress designed the victim compensation program only for families whose injuries or deaths can be shown to be linked to a vaccine and that has not been done in this case. The ruling came in the so-called vaccine court, a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims established to handle claims of injury from vaccines. It can be appealed in federal court. The parents presented expert witnesses who argued mercury can have a variety of effects on the brain, but the ruling said none of them offered opinions on the cause of autism in the three specific cases argued. They testified that mercury can affect a number of biological processes, including abnormal metabolism in children. Special master Denise K. Vowell noted that in order to succeed in their action, the parents would have to show "the exquisitely small amounts of mercury" that reach the brain from vaccines can produce devastating effects that far larger amounts ... from other sources do not. The ruling said the parents were arguing that the effects from mercury in vaccines differ from mercury's known effects on the brain. Vowell concluded that the parents had failed to establish that their child's condition was caused or aggravated by mercury from vaccines. Friday's decision that autism is not caused by thimerosal alone follows a parallel ruling in 2009 that autism is not caused by the combination of vaccines with thimerosal and other vaccines. The cases had been divided into three theories about a vaccine-autism relationship for the court to consider. The 2009 ruling rejected a theory that thimerasol can cause autism when combined with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. After that, a theory that certain vaccines alone cause autism was dropped. Friday's decision covers the last of the three theories, that thimerosal-containing vaccines alone can cause autism. The ruling doesn't necessarily mean an end to the dispute, however, with appeals to other courts available. The new ruling was welcomed by Dr. Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who said the autism theory had "already had its day in science court and failed to hold up." But the controversy has cast a pall over vaccines, causing some parents to avoid them, he noted, "it's very hard to unscare people after you have scared them." On the other side of the issue, a group backing the parents' theory charged that the vaccine court was more interested in government policy than protecting children. "The deck is stacked against families in vaccine court. Government attorneys defend a government program, using government-funded science, before government judges," Rebecca Estepp, of the Coalition for Vaccine Safety said in a statement. SafeMinds, another group supporting the parents, expressed disappointment at the new ruling. "The denial of reasonable compensation to families was based on inadequate vaccine safety science and poorly designed and highly controversial epidemiology," the goup said. The advocacy group Autism Speaks said "the proven benefits of vaccinating a child to protect them against serious diseases far outweigh the hypothesized risk that vaccinations might cause autism. Thus, we strongly encourage parents to vaccinate their children to protect them from serious childhood diseases." However, while research has found no overall connection between autism and vaccines, the group said it would back research to determine if some individuals might be at increased risk because of genetic or medical conditions. Meanwhile, in reaction to the concerns of parents, thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines in the United States. In Friday's action the court ruled in three different cases, each concluding that the preservative has no connection to autism. The trio of rulings can offer reassurance to parents scared about vaccinating their babies because of a small but vocal anti-vaccine movement. Some vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, are on the rise. The U.S. Court of Claims is different from many other courts: The families involved didn't have to prove the inoculations definitely caused the complex neurological disorder, just that they probably did. More than 5,500 claims have been filed by families seeking compensation through the government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and the rulings dealt with test cases to settle which if any claims had merit. Autism is best known for impairing a child's ability to communicate and interact. Recent data suggest a 10-fold increase in autism rates over the past decade, although it's unclear how much of the surge reflects better diagnosis. Worry about a vaccine link first arose in 1998 when a British physician, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, published a medical journal article linking a particular type of autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine. The study was later discredited.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Russell and Robalee Bruesewitz sit with their 18-year-old daughter Hannah, center, at their home on Lebanon Avenue in Mt. Lebanon on Monday. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case brought by the Bruesewitzs on Hannah's behalf.

The Supreme Court will decide whether drug makers can be sued by parents who claim their children suffered serious health problems from vaccines. The justices on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from parents in Pittsburgh who want to sue Wyeth over the serious side effects their daughter, six months old at the time, allegedly suffered as a result of the company's diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled against Robalee and Russell Bruesewitz, saying a 1986 federal law bars their claims. That law set up a special vaccine court to handle disputes as part of its aim of insuring a stable vaccine supply by shielding companies from most lawsuits. Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer, Inc., prevailed at the appeals court but also joined in asking the court to hear the case, saying it presents an important and recurring legal issue that should be resolved. The Obama administration joined the parties in calling for high court review, although the government takes the side of the manufacturers. Only one state appeals court, the Georgia Supreme Court, has ruled that families can sue in a vaccine case. The vaccine industry has fiercely opposed the Georgia ruling in the case of Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari. They claim their son suffered neurological damage after receiving vaccine booster shots made by pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline that contained the preservative thimerosal. The family has since withdrawn its lawsuit, possibly in an effort to avoid an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling, although the Georgia court's opinion allowing similar lawsuits remains in force. The court did not act on the companies' appeal Monday, but the decision in the other case almost certainly will apply to the Georgia case. According to the lawsuit, Hannah Bruesewitz was a healthy infant until she received the vaccine in April 1992. Within hours of getting the DPT shot, the third in a series of five, the baby suffered a series of debilitating seizures. Now a teenager, Hannah suffers from residual seizure disorder, the suit says. The vaccine court earlier rejected the family's claims. Wyeth lost another high court fight last year over whether federal law barred lawsuits against drug makers. That case, involving a botched injection, asked whether federal law included an implicit prohibition on the lawsuits. The court said it did not. In this appeal, however, Congress clearly laid out how claims over vaccines were to be made, and the court has repeatedly ruled against plaintiffs when Congress has explicitly sought to bar lawsuits. Other than the Georgia court, state and federal courts have uniformly invoked a provision of the 1986 federal law, which seems to bar most lawsuits against vaccine makers. The idea behind the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was to ensure a stable supply of childhood vaccines by shielding drug makers from most lawsuits, and setting up a federal vaccine court to handle disputes. The law would serve to block state laws that otherwise would give families the ability to sue the manufacturers. In recent years, the legal fight has frequently come from families of autistic children claiming that mercury-based thimerosal is linked to autism. Numerous studies have addressed vaccines and autism and found no link, including with the preservative. Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single doses. Last year, special masters appointed by the vaccine court concluded that vaccines aren't to blame for autism, disappointing thousands of families hoping to win compensation and others who remain convinced of a connection. But the vaccine court still must rule on additional cases that argue that vaccines with thimerosal are to blame, if the mercury reached and damaged brain cells. The case, to be argued in the fall, is Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, 09-152.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Does your child or student display any of these behaviors? Are they sometime inconsistant or random in occurance? Are they are times almost impossible to understand or cope with? Take a look at the list of below.

hitting pushing, yelling fighting with peers, difficulty changing from one activity to another sleeping problems, excessive energy levels, being unable to sit still and focus, refusal to partake in normal childhood experiences or play picky eaters, frequent tantrums, extreme sensitivities and excessive fears

If you find yourself answering yes to several of these there is Good news! Your frustration and confusion maybe is almost over!

Finally!... A thorough explanation and a name for the behaviors and developmental concerns that exist -

Join Eileen Getches, MEd, OTR and Catherine Bladow, MS.CCC-SLP, BCBA as they present ways for parents, teachers and therapist to take a closer look at sensory processing issues and managing behaviors. Participants will learn how to proactively plan environments and activities to support behaviors.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

January 28, 2010

Wakefield's Science Proven Valid Again In New Study That Replicates Findings

Read the full study, Clinical presentation and Histologic Findings at Ileocolonoscopy in Children with Autistic spectrum Disorder and Chronic Gastrointestinal symptoms at Autism Insights. View a .pdf HERE.

Patients with ileal and/or colonic LNH had lower mean/median age than those without; patients with ileal and/or colonic inflammation had lower mean/median age than those without. There was a significant association between ileo and/or colonic inflammation or LNH, and onset of developmental disorder; plateaued or regressive onset conferred greater risk than early onset.

Conclusions: Patients with autism or related disorders exhibiting chronic gastrointestinal symptoms demonstrate ileal or colonic inflammation upon light microscopic examination of biopsy tissue. Further work is needed to determine whether resolution of histopathology with appropriate therapy is accompanied by GI symptomatic and cognitive/behavioral improvement.

Keywords:ASD ileitis, colitis, lymphonodular hyperplasia

1 Assistant professor of pediatrics, New York University school of Medicine Director of Gastroenterology services, Thoughtful House Center for Children, 3001 Bee Caves Rd, Austin, Texas, 78746, UsA.

2 Associate Clinical professor of pediatrics, New York University school of Medicine, 550 1st Ave., New York, NY 10016, UsA.